Praying isn’t a magic wand to be used to have your wish granted! This is something I had to explain to my kids recently. They’d believed that they could pray for whatever they wanted, like Jesus was a genie in the bottle waiting to make all their wishes come true.
God is not our genie, He’s our Heavenly Father and He answers our prayers according to His will. “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” (1 John 5:14-15). Basically we shouldn’t pray for something that doesn’t line up with the nature of God. God isn’t going to bless disobedience.
Yet unfortunately we sometimes pray for God to bless something we know isn’t right and then we get frustrated when things don’t work out the way we want them to. God is a God of order. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. (1 Corinthians 14:33). If it’s out of order, out of disobedience then you shouldn’t expect God to bless it or grant it to you.
When we pray we should examine our motives, what is our attitude, what is our purpose because that is what truly interests God when we pray.
Our heart must be right. It’s not so much what we pray and for how long, but that our heart is right – it’s not malicious. Our hearts should be full of love, gratitude and praise. Because our motives are not right could be reason of an unanswered prayer.
God wants the very best for us. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins one of the reasons is for us to have abundant life. God wants us to pray to Him, He wants us to seek His face, he wants us to have our hearts desires, but it can’t be contrary to His word.
We should pray in faith to God offering up praises and listening to Him for discernment. Our prayers shouldn’t be selfish one way street of communication it should be open communication between us and God, which helps build our relationship with Him. It builds fellowship and intimacy which is essential in our walk of faith.
Don’t treat God as a genie in the bottle waiting to grant your every wish, but as your Heavenly Father that loves you and wants to grow in fellowship with you and wants the best for you.
- Peace In The Storm - February 12, 2018
- I’m Not Perfect, No One’s Perfect - May 10, 2016
- When You’ve Suppressed Your Feelings For Too Long - April 26, 2016
